Trials and tribulations

Created
Mon, 28/08/2023 - 23:01
Updated
Mon, 28/08/2023 - 23:01
Churning in the Donald Trump multiverse Judge Tanya S. Chutkan is set to consider a trial date for Donald Trump’s trial on federal charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith in the Jan. 6 indictment. CNN reports, “Smith wants the trial to begin January 2 – two weeks before Trump’s first big test in the 2024 primary race in the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses. The ex-president’s team has asked for much more time, and is proposing a date of April 2026. Trump is not expected to be at the hearing.” Watch Brandi Buchman’s live feed from the Prettyman courthouse in Washington, D.C. beginning at 10 a.m. In Atlanta, meanwhile, in a hearing this morning, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will present arguments in the case against Mark Meadows who seeks to move his case to federal court. Politico explains why Meadows (and others) might want their cases heard in federal court: If moved to federal court, the charges — all of which are under Georgia law — would remain the same, and Willis’ team could continue to handle the prosecution. But federal procedural rules, not state court rules, would apply. And some defendants might anticipate other, more substantive advantages in a federal forum. A jury for a trial in federal court would likely be drawn from 10 counties that comprise Atlanta and its sprawling suburbs, while a state-court trial would likely include jurors only from Fulton County, which delivered a 73% to 26% victory for Joe Biden over Trump in 2020. The broader set…